Replacing Copper With Pencil Graphite

Late-Eight writes "A key discovery at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could help advance the role of graphene as a possible heir to copper and silicon in nanoelectronics. Researchers believe graphene's extremely efficient conductive properties can be exploited for use in nanoelectronics. Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon, eluded scientists for years but was finally made in the laboratory in 2004 with the help of everyday, store-bought transparent tape. The current research, which shows a way to control the conductivity of graphene, is an important first step towards mass producing metallic graphene that could one day replace copper as the primary interconnect material on nearly all computer chips." Researchers are now hot to pursue graphene for this purpose over the previous favorite candidate, buckytubes (which are just rolled-up graphene). Farther down the road, semiconducting graphene might take over from silicon at the heart of logic chips.

Comments

Way back when....

[Jhon]

I had an atari 800 xl years ago (circa 1980s). A friend had spilled milk on the keyboard and a number of keys stopped responding.

My 'solution' involved opening up the keyboard and retracing the mylar sheet connections with a pencil. It worked great -- but I needed to crack it open every few weeks and retrace it.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you are fairly clever and poor.

Re:Keep Erasers Away

[CommunistHamster]

Also, these things will be impossible to sharpen.

but

[inKubus]

is it carbon neutral?